


a reckoning postponed

by iamsolarflare



Series: it's a Fallen London/Minecraft Youtube au [1]
Category: Fallen London | Echo Bazaar, Hermitcraft
Genre: Gen, Tag wranglers stop tagging Hermitcraft as RPF challenge, Vague Body Horror, anyway etho gets mentioned like once but he's not here, cws:, general self-destructiveness because like. seekers. yanno, once more i must complain about ao3 listing the names of the meat hermits, unsanitary eating habits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23831425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamsolarflare/pseuds/iamsolarflare
Summary: in which: a chance encounter goes the way it usually does. remember, kids, don't go Seeking
Relationships: None
Series: it's a Fallen London/Minecraft Youtube au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1717144
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	a reckoning postponed

**Author's Note:**

> everyone in this au has Fancy London Names so i'm just gonna. have this little disclaimer at the top of every fic.
> 
> characters appearing/mentioned: Vincent "Vinny" [last name pending] (VintageBeef), Doc "Sevens" Maddox (Docm77), Braeden "Doubles" Oleander (BDoubleO100), Ethan [last name pending] (EthosLab).

It’s always the quiet hours of the night when the Seekers come.

To be fair, it’s half his fault. He doesn’t ask questions, he stays open at odd hours, of course he gets wild-eyed and scarred people slapping down rostygold on the counter and demanding meat, raw meat. But that’s a choice he’s made as surely as Seeking is a choice they’ve made. Separate paths, ending up in the same place for at least that brief amount of time.

The punch to the gut only happens when it’s Maddox. And it  _ is _ , sometimes, Maddox. Slinking inside, hands stuffed in his coat-pockets, face torn between crazed with hunger and guilty about bothering him.

But the Vintage doesn’t ask questions. Vincent doesn’t ask questions. Not anymore. And there’s always that awkward moment before Maddox puts down his payment where he crosses his fingers behind his back and hopes that his former friend will say something,  _ anything _ new.

Never happens. It’s always silence.

Puts him in mind of the last day he saw Braeden, and he hates it.

\--

Mind you, the last day he saw Braeden, the guy wasn’t exactly quiet. Not hardly. In fact, despite being a Seeker like all four of the Noble Hunters Order had been, the man was very outspoken about his reasons for doing so all the time.

Said there was a great injustice done to Mr. Eaten. Said that a reckoning could not be postponed indefinitely. Said someone needed to do what had to be done, offer a wake, a closure, or at least vengeance.

And that was Braeden “Doubles” Oleander to a T. Never stopped moving, trying to force the world to rights. He’d fight the ceiling of the Neath if he could. In fact, before he’d gone North, he was probably  _ going _ to, what with him being a dyed-in-the-wool revolutionary and all that, a real page on the calendar.

But that day, he still remembers it clearer than any other time he’d seen Braeden. A quiet day, Maddox recovering from a step in his Search that’d left him dead, Ethan out doing somesuch shadowy business, and him doing his other job, part-time then, tending to the storefront of the Vintage in the strange night-hours.

It’d taken him a couple of seconds to recognize the man who stood there, ragged and covered in bloodstains and scars and candle-wax and substances unknown but was  _ smiling _ , something fierce but no less genuine, with missing teeth and bright eyes.

“Doubles?” he’d asked, raising an eyebrow, and the mess of the man beamed wider as he approached, practically shambling.

“Oh, Vinny my friend, I’m glad I get to see you here and now. Looked everywhere for the other two and they weren’t anywhere, can you believe it? But never mind that. I’ve got it. I’m ready.”

_ Ready _ . He didn’t need to ask. They’d been doing it together, each advancing in their own way, learning and taking the steps separately before reconvening. He  _ knew _ what was going to happen. Where Braeden was going.

“How long until you set off?”

His friend’s grin widened, head almost cocked at an impossible angle, but not  _ quite _ . “Why, one week of course. The correct Number of days, yeah? And that’s why I stopped by! One last feast. One last, and then I’ll not be so peckish ever again. Or maybe I will, who’s to say? But it’s almost time. Oh, it’s almost time.”

He let Braeden talk on as he prepared the “feast.” Selections of raw meat, the least likely to be diseased he could think of. Would it even matter, though? He wasn’t going to see him again. Braeden was going North, and he could not follow yet, and looking down at the items his friend had ordered… suddenly, he didn’t want to.

He gave up after that night. And a week later, so did Ethan.

Ethan didn’t really talk to him at all, or to anyone, anymore. He’d become a full-fledged zailor. From what Vincent could gather, really just scraps of rumor, he’d seen Braeden off on the day of his voyage North, and it’d scarred him badly enough that the man just about dropped the Search and went to zee just to forget.

Word was, the man was certain that whatever he’d find on those uncharted waters wouldn’t unsettle him as much as what he saw that day was. An unflappable captain who rarely spoke and wasn’t stirred by much of anything, because he’d seen…  _ something _ . Wouldn’t say what. He was still alive, though, that was something.

But Maddox, Maddox hadn’t seen Braeden for two weeks. Vincent had cleaned himself up for the last NHO meeting, but he hadn’t needed to. The absence of two people again said more than he possibly could. Still, Maddox asked:

“Where’s Ethan?”

Not hard to answer. Not the one he was dreading telling Doc.

“He gave up. Said he didn’t have the guts for it after all. Freed of the Name now, so I’m told.”

Maddox shrugged. “Well, if one of us was going to throw in the towel, it  _ would _ be him. He’s got too much to lose and too much attachment to it. Doubles?”

He couldn’t help it, he winced. For the first time in what would become a long-running pattern, Vincent's stomach churned at the memory of Braeden talking about his last feast.

“Gone North.” It's all he could manage as his voice hitched on  _ something _ , breaking unexpectedly.

“Well, brilliant news then, why look so down?” Maddox grinned. He didn't understand. Still doesn't, really.

“Maddox, I… I can't do this anymore. The search for the Name, I mean. I don't want to follow Doubles. I don't-”

Maddox's face was unreadable. Anger? Jealousy? Betrayal? Disappointment?”

“-I don't want to ask questions anymore. I don't have any curiosity left.” It's not what he meant to say, not really, but now he's just  _ talking _ . “I'm still going to be behind the Vintage and I'll still be here to talk to you about other things, but the Name and the Number and everything else, I'm leaving that behind. I can't do that. I can't go North or get anywhere near. I don't have the heart, anymore, or maybe I have too much heart. But I'm-”

Maddox pushed in his chair, held up a hand as he turned to leave. “It's fine, Vince. Don't make excuses. You're doing the wise thing, really.”

And that's the last conversation they'd really had. No meetings since. Just the midnight visits.

Maddox doesn't give up. He suspects that now more than ever his former friend is determined to get North and bring back Braeden somehow, some way, because Doc was always fiercely loyal to a fault.

Every time the man comes into the Vintage, he waits for him to mention quitting or being Freed.

It never happens.

**Author's Note:**

> listen. listen. you can't give me an mcyter with two whole sevens in their name and NOT expect me to make them a seeker. also this was written during s6 so that's why technically all of the NHO are out of the picture besides doc.
> 
> it's ironic that the ONE person i sent north was the person who came back later that season but i think i handled that pretty well


End file.
